Hello fellow tee enthusiasts!

With 2009 winding to a close, I think now is an ideal time to look back (but not in anger). To this end, I’ve compiled my Top 20 Tees for the year below.

A few caveats: this index is 100% arbitrary (and, hence, captive to my own particular likes and dislikes); I don’t own all of these, nor have I inspected them personally (and, thus, I can’t comment on the screen printing or quality of the blank, unless otherwise noted); lastly, it’s entirely plausible that some of these tops predate 2009 (if I’ve included them here, it’s because they were new to moi).

And with the exception of my Top 3 (included after the jump), these designs are not arranged in any particular order. Lastly, click on the pics to link through…

Drumroll, please.

From Milk & Eggs Co., I present this clever pattern which mimics the contours of freeway traffic at night.

I don’t think the Watchmen movie lived up to its advanced billing (sadly…), but the visuals were astounding, carefully crafted assemblages of eye candy. Misgivings aside, I’m fond of this excellent creation from Nerdy Shirts, which has been a staple of my t-shirt rotation since the release of the film in March.

(Psst: look at more Watchmen-related shirts here…)

This next one is purr-fect for cat fanciers.

Cap tip: ATShirtBlog

Note that this doubles as the perfect segue into our next entry, which also comes courtesy of our friend Micah, the author and editor of the aforementioned tee blog. There’s the obvious meta quality at play here, but I’m more taken with the careful placement of linear blocks; they convey a simple, harmonious minimalism (some people call this composition, I would imagine). Technically speaking, this tee won’t be released until 2010, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to give it a push now. Nice work, yo!

I’m a sucker for provocative heart-on-your-(short)-sleeve slogan tees, of which this is a fine example. Let’s just say that it speaks to my emotional mindset these days…

Once more, with less feeling:

Via.

I fancy myself something of a Night Owl…

In 2008, I stumbled across the Homage table at Pool (an industry trade show staged biannually in Lost Vegas), and I was immediately struck by their faithful recreations of vintage sports tees. Even more appealing were the designs that punned on Boston luminaries. Take, for instance, the sample embedded below, which pays references to the great Carl Yastrzemski — the last man to win baseball’s elusive Triple Crown — and a catchy slogan coined in tribute by devoted fans during the magical 1967 pennant race. Bonus points: Homage uses the smoooooothest, sooooooftest blanks, like evah.

Also from Homage is this excellent race flag motif, printed in honor the great Eddy Merxck. I sport this at least once a week, on the racetrack or off.

Attentive readers might recall that I’ve profiled this tee, along with other bike themed shirts, here.

No collection of 2009 t-shirts would be complete without a MJ entry. To wit, this remake of the Piano Keyboard shirt, which made a memorable appearance in the King of Pop’s now-seminal “Beat It” video.

Compare with the source material in the following clip (itself a curiously strange mix of “Beat It” footage blended with the audio for Weird Al’s retort, “Eat It”) at the 1:23 mark:

Likewise, the other biggest t-shirt meme of 2009 was undoubtedly the 3 Wolf Moon phenomenon. It’s runaway success spawned a number of spin-offs including, predictably enough, the 3 Teen Wolf Moon top.

Also speaking to the woeful zeitgest…

Star Wars is a bottomless t-shirt trope (not unlike, say, the Sarlacc Pit in Return of the Jedi), and this can be both good and bad. Some filtering is necessary, lest you get bogged down by the sheer volume. That said, I thought this example from Typetees put a creative twist on what is now ubiquitous source material.

As part of my responsibilities here at Found Item, I build a page for every new product. This requires some basic coding, which until earlier this year, was a foreign language to me. And while I’m no expert, I’ve learned enough to monkey around with some degree of proficiency. All of which is enormously gratifying. As such, I present this rather humorous tee from Headline Shirts that registers for all the wrong reasons…

On a related note, peep this geek-approved design that made the rounds on the t-blog circuit earlier in the year.

Without doubt, this is the best-performing rookie added to the Found Item lineup in 2009. Classic stuff from a now classic flick… and I’m proud to say that I had a role in bringing this from conception to market.

Video for the uninformed:

With the onset of winter’s colder weather, I’ve added sweatshirts to my daily wardrobe. However sophomoric the sentiment, this is my new fave:

By my count, I’ve featured this next tee at least 4 times in this column before. I heart it that much. Buy it already!

Menacing:

And with that, we’ve arrived at the final three. More drumroll, please…

3. I love an awesome mash-up and this next entry fits that description to a tee (however cheesy, pun intended). It’s genius on a multitude of levels…

2. A local PDX haunt that opened earlier in 2009, Bunk turns out the freshest and tastiest sandwiches in town…

On the front:

And now the back:

See Bunk’s menu here.

1. Behold the classic Tux Tee, my nominee for shirt of the year. Why you ask? Simple: I contributed mightily to its research, design, printing, marketing and promotion, making it the first tee I moved from the drawing board to the showroom. Truly, a satisfying endeavor. No one said pimping was easy…

Win the Tux Tee here!

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Rocket-powered and nailed to the ground: travis@founditemclothing.com

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 9:27 am by LesSavyTrav and is filed under And On And On And On It Goes..., Animals, Are You Tech Savvy? (I'm Not), Blinded By The Light, Bling, Cotton Candy, Eye Candy, Found Item Clothing, Inc., Jacking For Beats, Lists, Mash Ups, Megamemes, Music, Nerdy Pastimes, New T-Shirts, Pop Culture, T-Shirt Trends, T-Shirts We Like, T-Shirts in the News, Tee Blogs, Teen Wolf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.